Looking for a way out: Reimagining the gaze in 'Carol'
2017; Issue: 86 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1449-857X
Autores Tópico(s)Cultural Studies and Interdisciplinary Research
ResumoA look is worth a thousand words in 'Carol' (Todd Haynes, 2015), in which sparse, often oblique dialogue is knowingly relegated to the periphery. Furtive glances loaded with unvoiced longing drive the narrative, and counter the oppressive male gaze associated with 1950s America and patriarchal control. The film plays on the idea of circularity, to suggest a figurative closed loop that traps women and strips them of agency. The act of looking is repeatedly mediated by windows, mirrors and other diegetic surfaces until, eventually, a female gaze emerges. This disrupts the cycle and offers the possibility of an autonomous life. The film finally breaks free of its own formal loop when Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) and Carol Aird (Cate Blanchett) explicitly reject their socially inscribed roles, rupturing the cycle by electing to pursue a life together.
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